The sewage treatment plant in Wooster has long been a troubling expense for the city and a target of Ohio EPA citations for churning out too much solid waste. So, it’s now making energy with the nasty stuff. WKSU’s Tim Rudell has more from Tuesday’s grand opening.

Three percent of America’s energy goes to run sewage and water plants. For a town of close to 30,000 people like Wooster, that translates to close to half a million dollars a year. Quasar Energy, the Ohio company that uses digester technology to turn bio-mass to energy, has brought a new system on line to change that.

The system gets enough energy from solids in the sewage to run the plant for nothing — and reduces the volume of those solids enough to make the EPA happy.

”“To go one step further,' adds Quasar CEO Mel Kurtz, "if we convert the bio-gas to bio-methane and compress it, now we have motor vehicle fuel. This facility can produce approximately 3,500 gallons of motor fuel equivalent per day.”

So, the city could run cars, sanitation trucks, buses and so forth for pretty much nothing a gallon.

The Wooster installation took 14 months. Eight similar projects are on order in Ohio.